Conveys harshness, beauty—and lingering hope.
Sónia Dias faces many challenges under António de Oliveira Salazar’s dictatorial rule in mid-1960s Portugal.
Though Pai prayed he’d have sons, Sónia is one of five sisters. She’s smart and has the heart of a poet but is lackadaisical about school. She covers shifts at her family’s fado restaurant and sneaks time with 16-year-old José Miguel Machado, a newly promoted journeyman printer. Zé Miguel is a Communist and artist, and he helps create contraband books to “make a better world.” After he’s arrested and the family restaurant is shut down for hiring a banned fado musician to perform, Sónia wonders who to blame for informing the secret police. The Dias family squeezes into smaller quarters, and Sónia’s pai sends her to work at a hotel laundry alongside her mother. Sónia’s no stranger to beatings, which she both metes out and receives at home, but she’s unprepared for the exhausting work and dangerous conditions. Fellow worker Zuleika, who’s 16, like Sónia, warns her about the owner’s flirtatious son, but Sónia ignores her. The verse format allows Sónia’s poetic voice to shine, drawing readers into the stark reality she’s dealing with. Although her head can be clouded by wine and soft kisses, she knows her own mind and speaks up: “I am a daughter of Eve / who / thinks / questions / dreams.”
Conveys harshness, beauty—and lingering hope. (author’s note, discussion questions, glossary, further reading) (Verse historical fiction. 14-18)Pub Date: May 7, 2024
ISBN: 9798765610114
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Carolrhoda Lab
Review Posted Online: Feb. 17, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2024
A page-turner.
An immersive tale of unlikely allies coming together for a common enemy.
In Joseon dynasty Korea in 1506, 17-year-old Iseul has one goal: to find her older sister, Suyeon, and bring her home. Although they didn’t have the best relationship after the trauma of their parents’ execution by royal soldiers, Iseul bravely travels through forbidden territory. Her enemy is King Yeonsan, a vile man who abducts women, but after hearing of a serial killer—and the king’s obsession with finding him—Iseul decides that capturing the murderer could be the way to get her sister back. She’s not alone in her hatred for the king; his half brother, Prince Daehyun, is secretly plotting treason to stop Yeonsan’s reign of terror. Calling Daehyun his favorite brother, the king demands he carry out increasingly extreme acts of cruelty in order to prove his loyalty, but the prince is determined to not become a monster himself. After a fateful encounter with Daehyun, Iseul is left with even more disgust for the crown, but she doesn’t yet know the full story behind Daehyun’s intentions. With such a powerful shared enemy, the pair might find that becoming allies is the smartest way to achieve their objectives. Award-winner Hur’s latest historical intrigue is well researched and doesn’t shy away from depicting elements of this real king’s brutal history, and the resulting tale is immersive, intense, and engaging.
A page-turner. (author’s note with content warning, historical note) (Historical thriller. 14-18)Pub Date: May 14, 2024
ISBN: 9781250858092
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends
Review Posted Online: Feb. 17, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2024
Poignant and real, beautiful and intense, this story of a girl struggling to define herself is as powerful as Xiomara’s...
Poetry helps first-generation Dominican-American teen Xiomara Batista come into her own.
Fifteen-year old Xiomara (“See-oh-MAH-ruh,” as she constantly instructs teachers on the first day of school) is used to standing out: she’s tall with “a little too much body for a young girl.” Street harassed by both boys and grown men and just plain harassed by girls, she copes with her fists. In this novel in verse, Acevedo examines the toxicity of the “strong black woman” trope, highlighting the ways Xiomara’s seeming unbreakability doesn’t allow space for her humanity. The only place Xiomara feels like herself and heard is in her poetry—and later with her love interest, Aman (a Trinidadian immigrant who, refreshingly, is a couple inches shorter than her). At church and at home, she’s stifled by her intensely Catholic mother’s rules and fear of sexuality. Her present-but-absent father and even her brother, Twin (yes, her actual twin), are both emotionally unavailable. Though she finds support in a dedicated teacher, in Aman, and in a poetry club and spoken-word competition, it’s Xiomara herself who finally gathers the resources she needs to solve her problems. The happy ending is not a neat one, making it both realistic and satisfying. Themes as diverse as growing up first-generation American, Latinx culture, sizeism, music, burgeoning sexuality, and the power of the written and spoken word are all explored with nuance.
Poignant and real, beautiful and intense, this story of a girl struggling to define herself is as powerful as Xiomara’s name: “one who is ready for war.” (Verse fiction. 14-18)Pub Date: March 6, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-06-266280-4
Page Count: 368
Publisher: HarperTeen
Review Posted Online: Dec. 20, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2018
PERSPECTIVES
SEEN & HEARD
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